My grandfather, Vincenzo Musso, born 18 Aug 1876, emigrated from Ribera or Castelvetrano to the United States in approximately 1895. His father was Luigi Musso, born in 1860 and may have died in 1880. Vincenzo Musso married Maria Oliveri, from Ribera, in the United states, in 1905.

My mother's family is named Smeraglia also from Ribera.

I will travel to Sicily in 2015, and I would like to correspond with descendants of the Musso, Smeraglia and/or Oliveri families.

frankjmusso wrote:My grandfather, Vincenzo Musso, born 18 Aug 1876, emigrated from Ribera or Castelvetrano to the United States in approximately 1895. His father was Luigi Musso, born in 1860 and may have died in 1880. Vincenzo Musso married Maria Oliveri, from Ribera, in the United states, in 1905.

My mother's family is named Smeraglia also from Ribera.

I will travel to Sicily in 2015, and I would like to correspond with descendants of the Musso, Smeraglia and/or Oliveri families.

Thank you so much for replying! The information cited above is certainly that of my grandfather, as it matches the information I have almost exactly. You are so kind and considerate to include the link to the Phone Book. Grazie!!!!

I checked the death record indexes for years 1878 through 1891 in Ribera, and did not find Vincenzo's father, Luigi Musso I found TWO Luigi Musso, in 1886 and 1891, but they were only 3 years old and 2 days old, respectively.

Maybe Luigi died later than 1891? Are you sure of the first name?

EDIT TO ADD:Saw your family tree on Ancestry. You indicate that Vincenzo's mother's name was Maria Smeraglia.... The death record for Luigi Musso in 1891 (age 2 days) lists father as Giuseppe and mother as MARIA SMERAGLIA.. Unfortunately, no ages are given for the parents...

I've been researching Ribera for a while and have a complete set of indexes on file and, in some cases, transcribed, from 1821 to 1910 at least. I have 41 people in my family tree with the surname Musso, including a Vincenzo who died in Birmingham, Alabama in 1955 and a Luigi born in 1853 (although not Vincenzo's father, who was Giuseppe). I also have 153 people from Ribera named Smeraglia, including Vincenzo's mother Maria, and 6 people with the surname Oliveri, although no Maria. It sounds like your tree intersects mine and it would be easy for me to look up your ancestors' records.

I just checked Ancestry and see that your Vincenzo Musso is in fact the same as mine. There's a tree on there by someone called AUffinger that matches your family, and that's also whom I am matched to. I'm not sure why I have a different father for Vincenzo than AUffinger and you do, but I know from past experience that AUffinger's information is unreliable. I see that we have different dates of birth for Maria Smeraglia as well. I'll investigate and figure out who is right.

OK, I just researched this a bit. Vincenzo Musso's mother was Maria Smeraglia. Her death record from Alabama is on Ancestry, and you can see from it that she was born about 1858 and her father was Louis Smeraglia and her mother was Calogera (misspelled as "Cologea") Danna. I have a birth record from Ribera for Maria Smeraglia, born 27 Mar 1858 to Luigi Smeraglia and Calogera D'Anna. Clearly this is the same person. However, I also have the same Maria Smeraglia's 1883 marriage record from Ribera to a Giuseppe Musso, a 36-year-old widower with parents Vincenzo and Rosa Corsentino. I also have found birth records for children of Giuseppe Musso and Maria Smeraglia named Rosa (Giuseppe's mother's name and probably Giuseppe and Maria's 1st daughter) and Nicolo' (born in 1888, so probably he had older brothers named Luigi and Vincenzo).

This leaves the mystery of Vincenzo's father. If he was born in 1876, as according to his WWI draft card, then he would've been born 7 years before his parents were married, which is unlikely. It's possible that Maria Smeraglia originally married Giuseppe's brother, named Luigi, and then after Luigi died she married his brother. This would also explain why Vincenzo has the same name as Giuseppe's father. Unfortunately the birth records from Ribera for 1876 are missing, so we can't just look this up, but I'll search for a marriage record for Luigi Muss and Maria Smeraglia around 1875 and a death record for Luigi Musso around 1882-3.

I do have more records from Ribera for more than 5,000 relatives of Maria Smeraglia in my tree on Ancestry to which I can give you access if you'd like.

I just searched Ribera death indexes from 1876 to 1883, marriage indexes from 1870 to 1876, and birth indexes and records from 1835 to 1865 and can find no record for a Luigi Musso, except the birth record from 1853 that I already have. (That Luigi's parents were Carmelo Musso and Francesca Siragusa.) What evidence do you have that Vincenzo's father was really named Luigi? Or that Vincenzo was born in 1876?

I did some more checking a found a few more records of interest. There was a Luigi Musso born 25 Jan 1883, the son of Giuseppe & Maria Smeraglia. He's the one who died at age 3 in 1886 that Tessa78 found above. However, his parents married only 2 days before he was born, so maybe the idea that they had an earlier son out of wedlock is not so farfetched. Also, one would normally expect that their first son would've been Vincenzo, not Luigi, unless Giuseppe already had a son named Vincenzo. OTOH, his marriage does say that he is a widower, but I haven't found any other Vincenzo Musso born in Ribera in the 1870s and early '80s, except for the Vincenzo Musso born to Giuseppe's brother Pasquale.

Also, I have found another Musso family that immigrated to Alabama: Carmelo Musso, son of Giacomo, and his wife Antonina LaBita. These were in another family tree (that of "Eric and Laurie"; I have a lot of intersection with them), but oddly they weren't linked to yours, despite Eric & Laurie also having your Mussos in their tree. I think, though, I've figured out how Carmelo is related to your GF: Carmelo's GF Carmelo Musso was probably the brother of your GF's GF Vincenzo, although I can't prove this yet, so Carmelo would be the 2nd cousin of your GF. Also, the Carmelo who immigrated had a brother Antonino, and Pasquale's son Vincenzo was going to stay with his cousin Antonino Musso on the ship's manifest for his trip over.

There are a lot of family trees on Ancestry for your family, but they're very mixed up. Some people have Maria Smeraglia marrying 2 or 3 times, including once to someone named Giuseppe Tortorici. They also have her as the mother of Giuseppe Nicolo', born in 1888, who might be the Nicolo' Musso born in 1888 for whom I found a birth record.

I figured out who your GF's parents were: Giuseppe Musso and Onofria Castagna. They married on 8 Dec 1873 in Ribera. After Onofria died, Giuseppe married Maria Smeraglia in 1883 and had son Luigi, named after her father since Giuseppe already had a son Vincenzo (your GF) named after his father. Vincenzo and Maria Oliveri (from Salaparuta in Trapani) had daughters Onofria (after his mother), Angelina (after her mother) and sons Giuseppe (after his father) and Giovanni (after her father), in that order, exactly in accordance with Italian convention. Their younger sons Nicolo' and Luigi were named after Giuseppe's brothers.

Wow! Thank you so much for your interest, carubia! I have been on the road at Christmas and offline, so I was surprised and delighted to see your posts

I am just beginning this journey, trying to figure it all out, and I've borrowed heavily on the work of others, so as to make a quick start. I can see that you rely on original documents, as should I. I have encountered problems with some of my information and am about to throw it out and begin anew.

According to others in my family, Vincenzo's father was named Luigi, and that was my basis for assuming it. If Italian custom in naming children is followed, then I would expect that Vincenzo's father would be named Giuseppe, because Vincenzo named his firstborn son Giuseppo, not Luigi or Louis. I believe your information is correct. I'd love to see your tree and I thank you for allowing me to view it. (Now I have to figure out how to do that!)

Judging from your screen name and the fact that so many of my ancestors appear on your tree, I would guess that one of your ancestors is my Aunt "Noffie" Carruba, who was my father's oldest sister.

I do know for a fact that my grandfather Vincenzo had a half-brother, Giuseppe Tortorici (now spelled Tortorigi by the family). Those Tortorigis are related to my family, and in fact I have spent many Sundays in my youth with them. Maria Smeraglia did marry Vincenzo's father and the senior Giuseppe Tortorici, and quite possibly, still another Musso

In our family tradition, Vincenzo Musso and Giuseppe Tortorici were thought to be half-brothers. They were not half-brothers, although they almost certainly would have been raised together as though they were.

Giuseppe Musso and Onofria Castagna were parents of Vincenzo Musso.

Onofria Castagna died and Giuseppe Musso married Maria Smeraglia.

Maria Smeraglia then married Giuseppe Tortorici and they were parents of the younger Giuseppe Tortorici.

Both Giuseppe Tortorigi and Vincenzo Musso immigrated to the United States and settled ultimately in Birmingham and remained asociated as though brothers. Although they were thought to be half-brothers, they did not in fact have a common parent.

I need either your email address or Ancestry.com screen name to give you access to my tree. You can PM me.

I don't think I'm related to your Aunt Norma (Onofria)'s husband with the surname Carruba. I've traced the entire Carubia family in Ribera up until 1930 so I would know it if he were related. Also, no one in the family used the name Carruba while none of the Carruba and Carrubbas that I've ever seen were really Carubias. I'm related much more distantly: Maria Smeraglia's uncle Antonino's wife Pellegrina Spallino's brothers Calogero and Domenico were married to members of my ancestors' families Garamella and Zambuto. Also, Giuseppe Musso's brother Pasquale was married to Accursia D'Avola, another surname of my ancestors from Ribera. Onofria Castagna might be related to the Carubia family through the Comparettos as well, but I've just started to investigate that connection. If Giuseppe Musso is related to Carmelo Musso as I suspect that would lead to another connection, and there's also probably another link through Maria Smeraglia's stepmother Vita Ruvolo's brother-in-law Liborio Riggi.

The aforementioned Antonino Smeraglia had a daughter Marta who married a Giuseppe Tortorici (born 1843). Maybe the Giuseppe Tortorici who married Maria was related to him.

My father's mother was Maria Smiraglia. The spelling could be off by a vowel since names were misspelled when they came over to the states. I don't know too much about my family in Sicily and I just started to search. I know that my grandmother came over at age 27 in 1920. My grandfather's name was Francesco DiLeo. She was born in Ribera, on the ship manifest from Ellis Island they list her mother as her closest relative. Her mother was Guiseppa Sarullo. I don't know if they are related but there may be a possibility.